Online camera Sortavala. Karelskaya Street, Sovetskaya Street (Karelia)
Sortavala is a city in the Republic of Karelia of the Russian Federation, located in the Northern Ladoga region. Administrative center of Sortavala municipal district, forms Sortavala urban settlement. Included in the list of historical cities in Russia.
The territory of the present Sortavala town has been inhabited by people a very long time ago, as is evidenced by the archaeological finds of the Stone and Iron Ages near Nukuttalahti (Riekkala Island), of the Viking Age at Hernemäki and Helulya. There was a fortified settlement in Paaso ancient settlement since the end of I millennium.
It is known that already in the second half of the 1st millenium A.D. lands in the place of present Sortavala were cultivated by tillers, who with a certain degree of certainty could be identified with Korela tribe.
The first mention of the island in the Russian sources is contained in the Census book of Vodskaya Pyatina of 1500, where on Riekkala island were mentioned St. Nicholas church - the center of St. Nicholas Serdobolsky pogost in Korelsky uyezd as well as settlements Popov Bereg (probably a priest's house) and Rigola (Riekkala).
On October 31, 1958 Sortavala lost its status of a town of republican subordination and was included into Sortavala district.
In 1963-1972 working village Helyulya was a part of Sortavala.
Since 1970 Sortavala was an independent administrative-territorial unit. Village and settlement councils of Valaam, Vyartsilya, Zaozerny, Kaalamo, Puikkola, Ruskela, Haapalampi and Helyulya townships were subordinated to Sortavala town Soviet.
In 1990 Sortavala was awarded the status of a historical city of Russia.
